Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
SLA Raids Bar for Selling Wisconsin Beer
Some towns outlaw skateboarding in order to curb public disorder among its teenagers. In New York, we allow them to get school credit for it. The Times has a feature about the new Phys Ed elective being taught at the East Side Community High School in the East Village. The skateboarding class is taught by Billy Rohan, professional skateboarder and head of the skate park development nonprofit Open Road. But since he's not a certified teacher, Rohan has to be accompanied by the assistant principal (bummer!). Skateboarding is one of several eclectic options now being offered by NYC schools among others such as yoga and capoeira, a Brazilian martial art. Nine weeks into the term, students in the class are already being taught to ollie.
Students Going for an A+ Skate or Die Trying
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookComments (16) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Newsmap
Contribute
Latest Tip:
The World March for Peace and Nonviolence comes to New York tomorrow, Monday, November 30, 2009, on
[more]
Ahh yes... the Hipster 'sport' of skateboarding...
A few weeks ago I witnessed a skateboarding hipster in Union Square attempting to jump a curb while twirling his board. He failed, spectacularly, landing hard on his buttocks then rolling on the ground in pain.
Needless to say I found his misfortune quite amusing. I welcome Mr Rohan to try to teach these hipsters how to properly skateboard, but until I will continue to enjoy their painful spills.
Does the gym teacher encourage them to fill out organ donor forms. Those 17 year old kidneys, liver, hearts & lungs could be put to good use, the brains can be tossed.
This rules. My high school offered yoga but not skateboarding. Wish they had though.
#1 I wouldn't describe the students at East Side Community High School hipsters. They are more likely to jump hipsters, or rather the high school-aged children of old hipsters).
Sounds like a great program.
Beats hell out of having to climb a stupid rope!
Hats off to Billy Rohan for contributing to his community this way.
all in all this sounds pretty rad, anything that actually motivates kid to be more active and actually doing something rather than sitting on their asses.... i'm particularly impressed w/ the offering of a capoeira class, wish my high school had had something like that.
Offering the kids a healthy activity that they're actually interested in! Great that the schools are promoting alternatives to competitive team sports. What will they think of next...
Kojak; you, sir, are an idiot. The majority of skateboarders would rather beat the shit out of hipsters than pass off as one. Maybe you could and could have definitely labeled them through the slacker crowd, vis-à-vi the movie reference too, but walk into a skateshop and call someone a hipster. I dare you to.
I'm with ivysaur on their comment. It's not some private school, is it?
In my high school, which was, we had rock climbing and gymnastics at the chelsea piers. Yoga in school and the usual tennis, and team sport far. But the yoga, climbing, and gymnastics definitely were a one up from the basics.
We also had Tai Chi for a few semesters.
Make them do the standing broadjump for an hour and then teach them to count with rocks. After that, shove them into an unlit, unheated factory making skateboard decks for 12 hours a day at 30 cents an hour.
This is great, I have to disagree with 8, most skaters I know aren't interested in fighting, just skating. I hope this spreads. Maybe the city will even keep skateparks open past 7 pm!
#1 get ur facts straight dude.. I bet u feel real proud for writing hipster 3 times in ur stupid ass lame comment! It's a shame it doesn't have anything to do with the actual subject... And yeah, skateboarding rules!
I'm sorry but most of the weirdos I see who skateboard around Union/Village/Lower East Side fit the EXACT description of a Hipster, and not the generalized version most Gothamist commenters point to.
Hipster or not, skateboarders are annoying. I've seen more of them fall on their asses than the worst bicyclists.
Kojak you are so ignorant. Just because you see a small amount of skateboarders that look "hipster" to you, doesn't mean you can equate that description to a whole group of people. Its called stereotyping.
Also, why do you bring up that skateboarders are annoying because they "fall on their asses?" That's part of the whole essence of skating, you keep trying the trick until you finally get it, no matter the consequences. Besides, you can fall on your ass or get hurt in any physical activity/sport, which you probably don't know about since you probably sit on your computer all day and write snide comments on various websites.
Given that ALL skateboarders I've seen lately fit the description, I'm comfortable with labeling them. And I wouldn't say that them falling down is annoying. That's more comedy relief than anything else.
'you probably sit on your computer all day and write snide comments on various websites.'
Nope, only on Gothamist, and only on slow work days.
Nine weeks into the term and they're only just now learning to Ollie?
Since it's my taxpayer dollars, I expect that by week 9, they be able to pull off frontside air.
"Ahh yes... the Hipster 'sport' of skateboarding..."
Oh please. Most of us have been skating and loving the sport since the 70's.
sigh.
Skateboarding rules! And biovert is right. 360!